Get To Know: Planetary Notions

A label dedicated to both the DJs and those immersed in dance floor culture, Planetary Notions plot a sound that consistently transports listeners to the unique place only club music can; a distant planet only accessible through quality sound via the highest form of delivery know to mankind, vinyl.

Very much for those who know or those seeking to discover, Planetary Notions celebrates its third release TODAY alongside a very (fifth) special London showcase. Bringing together the same combination of musical navigators that launched the label back in 2014, Joe Rolét, Elijah Bailey, and Azire, Bar A Bar is the site for the label’s signature sound all night long.

Anticipating the release and event we decided to get to know the Planetary Notions better:

“We all feel like the vinyl struggle is very much a right of passage.”

Explain the meaning behind the name “Planetary Notions”?
Notion (noun) “A notion is a conception of or a belief about something”. We believe in club and sound system culture and have done for many years. Planetary Notions is a name we chose to sum up our desired efforts to contribute towards this culture through our series of intimate parties and releases, both of which have a continuous cosmic theme.

Why do you choose the vinyl-only format? Is this more of a practical decision or ideological, would you say?
For us it’s definitely more of an ideological one. We’re in an age now where digital is completely taking over on all levels – but having been involved in buying records for over 15 years we know that vinyl is optimum in both sound and performance so we’re all about sticking to this. That’s not to say we’re against digital! For us the physical aspect just possesses so much power – we all get massively excited when 300 records turn up from the pressing plant and seeing one of our tracks released digitally online just wouldn’t give us the same feeling.

What would you say is the most difficult aspect of the vinyl-only approach?
We’re very much in the early stages of running a label and with us doing a limited run of 300 records per release, it gives us very little margin to turn a profit to re-invest back into the label. We’ve just about broken even so far which we’re super happy with but as 3 life long friends investing our own money with no outside support its already been quite challenging. Nonetheless we have such love and belief in what we’re doing and deep down we all feel like the vinyl struggle is very much a right of passage.

Can you also explain a bit about your philosophy behind curation? I mean, I understand you are looking for quality and diversity, but how to you go about choosing what you will feature? Is there more specific criteria? What ration would you say there is between reaching out to artist yourself vs. content you have received?
For us it’s very much a personal thing. All our releases so far have come through an existing relationships but I’m sure as we continue to grow this may change. In regards to what we look for it has to have cosmic elements, be that with a grounding in house, minimal or chunkier tech house stuff with a bit of an old school feel – everything has to have that cosmic flavor. Something that’s just as important as the music is the person behind it, their vibe, aspirations and standards. For us you have to be able to tick both those boxes. Our ears are totally open but we’re very picky!

On that note, what can you tell us about the artist featured on your upcoming EP: Stellar Wind & DSC?
DSC is an artist who we’ve known many years way before we started the label. We first came across his track ‘Lovers Fall’ on the artist transfer coach after Dimensions a few years back, but as soon as we heard it we had to get that signed! One play and that was it. On the flip side Stellar Wind is a combination of a two musical minds involved in many other projects. Their identities we’d rather keep undercover for now but there is plenty more amazing and varied material to come from this outfit.